This past week has been a strangely clarifying political moment. It was caused by two related events: the leak of the Justice Department’s “white paper” justifying Obama’s claimed power to execute Americans without charges, followed by John Brennan’s alarming confirmation hearing (as Charles Pierce wrote: “the man whom the administration has put up to head the CIA would not say whether or not the president of the United States has the power to order the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen within the borders of the United States”). I describe last week’s process as “strange” because, for some reason, those events caused large numbers of people for the first time to recognize, accept and begin to confront truths that have long been readily apparent.

Illustrating this odd phenomenon was a much-discussed New York Times article on Sunday by Peter Baker which explained that these events “underscored the degree to which Mr. Obama has embraced some of Mr. Bush’s approach to counterterrorism, right down to a secret legal memo authorizing presidential action unfettered by outside forces.” It began this way:

“If President Obama tuned in to the past week’s bracing debate on Capitol Hill about terrorism, executive power, secrecy and due process, he might have recognized the arguments his critics were making: He once made some of them himself.

“Four years into his tenure, the onetime critic of President George W. Bush finds himself cast as a present-day Mr. Bush, justifying the muscular application of force in the defense of the nation while detractors complain that he has sacrificed the country’s core values in the name of security.”

Baker also noticed this: “Some liberals acknowledged in recent days that they were willing to accept policies they once would have deplored as long as they were in Mr. Obama’s hands, not Mr. Bush’s.” As but one example, the article quoted Jennifer Granholm, the former Michigan governor and fervent Obama supporter, as admitting without any apparent shame that “if this was Bush, I think that we would all be more up in arms” because, she said “we trust the president”. Thus did we have – while some media liberals objected – scores of progressives and conservatives uniting to overtly embrace the once-controversial Bush/Cheney premises of the War on Terror (it’s a global war! the whole world is a battlefield! the president has authority to do whatever he wants to The Terrorists without interference from courts!) in order to defend the war’s most radical power yet (the president’s power to assassinate even his own citizens in secret, without charges, and without checks).

[…]

That many Democratic partisans and fervent Obama admirers are vapid, unprincipled hacks willing to justify anything and everything when embraced by Obama – including exactly that which they pretended to oppose under George W Bush – has also been clear for many years. Back in February, 2008, Paul Krugman warned that Obama supporters are “dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality.” In May, 2009, a once-fervent Obama supporter, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, wrote a column warning that Obama was embracing many of the worst Bush/Cheney abuses and felt compelled – in the very first sentence – to explain what should be self-evident: “Policies that were wrong under George W. Bush are no less wrong because Barack Obama is in the White House.” The same month, former Bush DOJ official Jack Goldsmith – who provided the legal authorization for the illegal Bush NSA warrantless eavesdropping program – went to the New Republic to celebrate that Obama was not only continuing the core Bush/Cheney approach to terrorism, but even better (from his perspective), was strengthening those policies far beyond what Bush could achieve by transforming Democrats from opponents of those policies into supporters.

And exactly as Goldsmith happily predicted, polls now show that Democrats and even self-identified progressives support policies that they once pretended to loathe now that it is Obama rather than Bush embracing them. On MSNBC, Obama aides and pundit-supporters now do their best Sarah Palin impression by mocking as weaklings and losers those who think the President should be constrained in his militarism and demonizing as anti-American anyone who questions the military (in between debating whether Obama should be elevated onto Mount Rushmore or given his own monument). A whole slew of policies that would have triggered the shrillest of progressive condemnations under Bush – waging war after Congress votes against authorizing it, the unprecedented persecution and even torturing of whistleblowers, literally re-writing FOIA to conceal evidence of torture, codifying indefinite detention on US soil – are justified or, at best, ignored.

I could have done without the gratuitous slam at Sarah Palin but otherwise Glenn is dead on.

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, but it is a series of fantasy fiction books written by Stephen R. Donaldson:

Thomas Covenant, an embittered and cynical writer, afflicted with leprosy and shunned by society, is fated to become the heroic savior of The Land, an alternate world. In six novels published between 1977 and 1983, he struggles against the satanic Lord Foul, “The Despiser”, who intends to escape the bondage of the physical universe and wreak revenge upon his arch-enemy, “The Creator”. Some elements are similar to those found in Richard Wagner’s epic “Ring Cycle” and in earlier Celtic literature, but with some of the values inverted.

Lord Foul’s specialty is manipulating and corrupting people into destroying the things they most love and want to protect. They think they are opposing him and don’t realize until it’s too late that they were doing what he wanted all along.

I feel like something similar has happened to the Democratic party. I am certainly no candidate for sainthood but it was not that long ago that I took pride in being a liberal Democrat because we occupied the moral high ground. Now I wonder if they changed or if I was merely naive.

Most of my Obot friends are still too busy patting themselves on the back for electing a black man they don’t give a shit what he does or doesn’t do. The next president needs to be an old white guy if we want them to care again.

I don’t think we will get another old white guy for president for a long time. They will be all in to diversity as long as that doesn’t mean a woman. So we will get every possible religion besides Protestant and every possible sexual orientation a male can be and every possible color of skin all to give the illusion of inclusiveness without having to let women participate.

We all saw the Obama trainwreck coming back in 2007, and we were right.

I’d settle for anyone with a strong content of character over another cult leader. I don’t care if s/he’s purple.

Constance, there’s a lady running for Tim Scott’s old CD seat in SC (?) running on “The Best Man for the job is a Woman” and she’s another strong conservative and accomplished woman. Reminds me of Mia Love and SarahP. I don’t know if the Dems have any rising lady stars, but the women on the right have a deep bench. Thinking Nikki Haley and Susana Martinez, both kick ass governors.😀

I’m also giddy that the self-proclaimed independent Dr. Ben Carson is retiring and “leaving all options open” for his future.

On a more important note, my DVR has started recording reruns of “Breaking Bad”. The last season must be starting sometime soon. I hope so because “Downton Abbey” is finishing its season next week. It must be time for a new season of “Mad Men” soon, too. Not sure what I’m going to be able to find so I can not watch the SOTU.

Just finished the last available episode of Breaking Bad. When it ended, husband said, “oh, shit, now we have to start watching Hannity again?”

SOTU avoidance: Nurse Jackie, BBC Penguin documentaries, ANYTHING!
Might even check out the dumb zombie show, Walking Dead.
Obama pisses me off so much I won’t be able to sleep after he’s done spewing his bullshit.
I may have to tune in for the Rubio rebuttal.

I have no problem with using a military heat-seeking drone to scour the forest to find him. Period!
Afterward it’s gotta be a tactical operation to attempt to close un and arrest him. If/when he resists – that’s his call.

1) “teacherken” is a Kos drone. 2) Dear Teacherken, College professors and instructors like me have had far more serious problems to deal with than a lack of basic civics/social studies knowledge for some time now. If public educators could just send us kids who can read and write at an 8th grade level, we’d be happy. Thxkbai

And since when did they stop “questioning authority” ? Used to be my favorite part of being a “vile prog”, we hated everyone in a power.😉 Then along came Obama and all that free stuff, like a perv at a playground with candy.

“Back in February, 2008, Paul Krugman warned that Obama supporters are dangerously close to becoming a cult of personality.”

They are a cult of personality and watch out when anything happens to escalate their cognitive dissonance. The ones who had principles immediately toss them aside and get really nasty in their attempts to vilify people who threaten their view of Obama. Fortunately many of the Obots are vapid and don’t perceive any problem. The need to insert Palin into every utterance is like a religious tic to show oneness with the cult. It is really creepy to see people with such a lack of awareness have power in media.

It’s both. I was really naive for about 20 years, but they also lost their freaken minds and took a left turn down the rabbit hole. Very few people agree with them at the moment. Certainly not conservatives, but also within the Dem party there is discontent. Genuine liberals aren’t there willingly, they’re there because they’ve convinced themselves that they have no choice, Republicans would be worse. Also they plug their ears and sing “la-la-la-la” to try and block the facts out. Our local Dem meetings are not filled with happy people, they’re tense. Some of them try to focus on how evil Republicans are because they certainly can’t focus on how wonderful Dems are right now.

At some point, Al Jazeera America is going to hire some on-air talent, right? I think they’re supposed to launch sometime this summer. They’ll probably have a bit of trouble securing commentators – especially now – but if they throw around enough of the sweet, sweet oil money they stuffed in Al Gore’s pocket, they’ll get somebody.

If those hires include liberal stars, are we going to hear about how they’re just desperate to stay relevant? Come to think of it, is Al Gore desperate to stay relevant? (Or just content to be irrelevant and filthy rich?)

LOL, something that strikes me as funny, when somebody is armed, that’s the end of the story. It’s tough to write an emotional journalism piece about what is the world coming to….when the woman pulled out a gun. So what happened next? Nothing, that’s the end of the story. Huh? What? What about the manhunt, the neighborhood being on alert, the long drawn out trial, the fund to pay for the victim’s medical treatment, the crime studies, the increased funding for cops, the politics, the hand wringing? Nope, none of that. She had a gun, case closed, end of story.

We have one paragraph in our local paper about a recent home invasion. Bad guy broke in, dad asked him to leave, bad guy charged, dad shot him. And..??! And what? Bad guy confessed and is expected to survive.

The whole “learned helplessness” scam that the Proggies have going applies in many many areas of life. I cannot be expected to defend myself, feed myself, clothe myself, etc. To be asked to do so is cruel. The proper (and ever so much less oppressive) solution to all those needs is to make myself beholden to my Govt Liege Lords (mostly edumacated white boys, natch) , and humbly beg their favor and the protection of their sword.

We all sharecroppers now, and what’s really wrong with that? Long as I minds my P’s and Q’s, and behaves respectful like I should, Boss Man gonna look out for me an mine – he tole me so.

It’s finally come out. What I’ve known all along: You shouldn’t watch porn on your smartphone.

The only reason I know this is because you shouldn’t be watching porn ANYWHERE. And because Obama IS porn for the liberal left, it’s best you don’t do that either. On CNN MoneyTech, writer David Goldman notes that it’s difficult to tell where a website is coming from on your iPhone or Droid or any of a million other intelligent cellular devices. You can’t simply hover over a url and have it tell you what it is, as you can on a computer at home. Once you click, or rather touch, you’re taken for a ride—and not a good one.

Much like the ride Obama has given us. A dangerous, taxing, ruinous ride. Porn Obama tears down traditional families. The saddest part is that those who are addicted to porn Obama, still can’t see the harm it does.

I believe there should be a 12 step program out there for those who are trying to kick the porn Obama addiction. Once you start to watch porn Obama on your smartphone, you are more at risk for drinking more of the koolaid downloading malware that can disastrously effect your morality, family, finances smart phone. So if we are going to agree that a 12 step program is necessary, let’s get started:1. We admit we are powerless over our porn Obama addiction. That our financial and moral compass has been degraded.

1. We admit we are powerless over our porn Obama addiction. That our financial and moral compass has been degraded.

2. We come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves and anyone but Obama, can
restore us to sanity.

3. We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of someone with more
sanity than Obama, like Ronald McDonald or Mickey Mouse.

4. We make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves and just how we became duped
by this socialistic, gun-grabbing, teleprompter-reading president.

5. We admit to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact amount of Liberal Koolaid
we’ve been drinking on a daily basis, and we promise to stop. Cold turkey.

6. We are entirely ready to have anyone with a lick of sense remove all these defects of character. May I suggest subscribing to Kevin Jackson’s mailing list?

8. Make a list of all persons you have harmed by spouting off liberal talking points and putting Obama/Biden bumper stickers on cars and become willing to make amends to them all.

9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. And while you’re at it, get a razor and take that bumper sticker off your car and replace it with something more family friendly.

10. Continue to take personal inventory and when you are wrong by continuing to support candidates without a moral compass and promptly admit it.

11. Seek, through prayer and meditation, to improve your conscious contact with as many God-fearing Christians as possible, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, try to carry this message to other liberal democrats who see nothing wrong with socialism, gun control, changing the traditional definition of marriage, and rewriting the Constitution to fit their whims.

I’d tell you to use your smartphone to find a nice, safe, conservative chat room where you can get help locating a real life Conservative, but I think it’s too soon for that just yet. After all, an Obama addiction this severe isn’t something you can recover from overnight.

I hope that he is not killed. do not want him to be a martyr. For all his whining about racism, it did not bother him to kill a black couple who did nothing what so ever to him. his reason to cause pain to the girls father. It did not bother him to ambush two cops doing nothing to him except they existed and wore a uniform.

he is a whining coward who deserves no sympathy from anyone.

for the fools that are praising him, they need to see the true person. He is nothing to admire

Cue the proggies going into spasms about how Rubio HATES HATES HATES WIMMINNNZ! and callously wants them beaten up!!!! – without ever, of course, investigating what was actually in the bill, or his reasons for opposing it.

Here was Rubio's explanation for voting against VAWA that so many reporters are leaving out: http://t.co/PCZFpALG

In typical Lt. Dangle character, he said (paraphrased since the tweet was axed) “if this isn’t over soon, I’ll have to go up with my friend and finish it” and posted a photo of his Lt.Dangle short- shorts.

The above tweet (that works) was his response to the just reported death of the deputy.

Great timing for both of us, huh? Not all Hollyweirds are that sensitive, I respect his decision, even though I’m still giggling over seeing those shorts again😉